Status Updates From Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad o...

9:
- Battle of Shanghai becomes the deadliest engagement in Asia since the Russo-Japanese War
- USSR provided limited military aid to China after the battle
- Chinese sustain heavy casualties for their tactics based on numerical superiority; the Japanese for under-estimating the Chinese
- China wouldn’t recover from Shanghai until aided by the USA in 1944
- Japanese exacted brutal reprisals later in Nanjing

8:
- Japanese 10th Army launched a seaborne landing in Shanghai
- Chinese soldiers adopt retreat and scorched earth policies
- Chiang Kai-Shek scapegoated commanders around him; later claims responsibility for his troubles
- Chinese soldiers desert their ranks and try entering the International Settlement for safety
- Battle of Shanghai results in a Japanese victory in November 1937

7:
- ‘Lost Battalion’ ordered to defend Four-Story Warehouse until Brussels Conference
- Battalion calls themselves ‘800 Heroes’ to misinform Japanese on their strength in numbers
- Nationalist commanders prefer a tactical withdrawal; Chiang Kai-Shek thought otherwise
- Japanese suffer heavy casualties before taking the warehouse
- Japanese 10th Army is formed due to concern with progress in China

6:
- Japanese shoot, behead or burn their Chinese POWs alive
- Chinese respond in kind despite orders of returning them for interrogation
- Western media deeply interested in the battle
- The majority support the Nationalists struggle
- Rumours spreading of chemical warfare being used by the Japanese; no one can confirm
- Chiang Kai-Shek wishes to sanction Japan and weaken their war effort in China

5:
- Western correspondents and media impressed by stoicism and bravery of Nationalist soldiers
- Literacy rate for Chinese soldiers greater than civilians
- 3rd Japanese ‘Lucky’ Division earn their nickname for suffering heavy casualties
- Japanese division typically 15,000 compared to Nationalist 5,000
- International Settlement aided by Italian soldiers and US Marines
- Chinese airfields crippled

4:
- China signs treaty with the USSR; this is so Stalin won’t worry about Japan whilst focusing on Europe
- International Settlement continues facing bombing by Japanese
- Chiang Kai-Shek wages fighting in Shanghai to hopefully attract Western attention and military intervention of the Japanese threat
- Chinese and Japanese both suffering heavy casualties

3:
- Operation Iron Fist results in 88th Division losing a whole battalion
- German advisors relax in Nanjing with racist attitude towards Chinese
- Chinese armoured columns battered by Japanese
- Japanese commanders firm believers of the Schliefen Plan
- Japanese portrayed with ‘great fighting spirit’ after winning the Russo-Japanese War
- Chinese leaders cautious of involving International Settlement

2:
- Japanese Shanghai Expeditionary Force
- 88th Division suffers casualties from frontal assaults
- Nationalist strategic bombing identically hits civilians
- Japanese Cabinet calls the battle ‘Shanghai Incident’
- Claire Chennault takes command of Chinese Air Force
- Chinese observers too far away from battlefield to give accurate artillery coordinates
- Japanese battleship Izumo avoids Chinese air power